Suggestions on database

John Vorwald

Ranch Hand

Posts: 139

posted 6 years ago

Hi,
I would like to write a database package where the data is stored locally in xml files, and the interface is through an html page. The data is time history measurements of parameters for a number of test conditions. I would like the html interface to allow the user to locate the test point of interest, based on min/max/average values of parameter(s) of interest, the interface should be able to create summary plots (min/max/avg of one or more parameters vs test number), statistical plots (probability distribution of a min/max/avg value of parameter), and detailed time history plots (time history or probability distribution plots of one or more parameters from a specific test). I do all kinds of testing, and I'm just wondering if the data can be stored in xml and accessed via html / web pages.
For background, I have written database applications, but not in Java. I also have used JFreeChart to make various plots, so I can work out the plotting details.
My main weakness comes from lack of understanding on applets.
Maybe some simpler questions would be useful
1) How does one write an interactive html file that starts java code?
2) Can plots be generate inside a browser?
3) Are there any examples of xml java databases?

There should be no reason why you can't store data in XML and then display in a webpage, the question would be : why do you want to do it that way?

Is there any reason why you are interested in doing it in such way?

Maybe I don't understand your question properly, but I would be sided to store my data in a database, and then display this on a web page.

It might be worth having a look at java web applications, creating servlets that can query the database for your data, and then push it out to a JSP page. You can style the JSP like you would an HTML page

James: I need to store data for a long periods of time, think more than 50 years. I have been at this task for about the last 15 years, and have been storing in db4 format. But, I don't think any current storage system has the legs to last 50 years, so I'm going to switch to implement the database in a text format. XML may be overkill, for the measured time history data since that is provided already in a text format. So I probably just need to make a summary XML file that contains the test program information, information on each of the test points, relative paths to the files, information on the parameters, and the min/max/avg for the parameters in each test point. I'll probably just end up storing the time histories in the format that is provided to me.

Regarding why I want to use html. Like I mentioned, I have already done this several times. And the problem is that the interface / data gets passed around, and there are always questions, and since I'm working in windows (ugh), I have to deal with updating the software every 5 years or so. So, I'm think to switch to an html interface to provide more onscreen information to the user, and also trying to use a more stable platform. And finally, several of the people that use the data are on computers that are restricted and limited as to what software can be on there. I'm not really looking at server / client type solutions, but we have that in hand anyways. I'm looking for a standalone interface that can run on restricted windows platforms, and with some stability to the interface.

Campbell Ritchie

Sheriff

Posts: 51447

87

posted 6 years ago

If you ned to store data for 50 years, that sounds like a databse, so I shall try moving you to our databases forum. This thread might not stay there.

There will be a link in the original forum. You click on that and it opens the thread in the new forum. You can then check the forum path at the top of the page, in this case you'll notice it ends with "JDBC". That's where this thread now is.